Zambia boasts of the world’s largest reserves of copper and is home to the spectacular Victoria Falls. It will hold presidential elections next year. India is the largest investor in Zambia, with Vedanta Resources having invested $1.5 billion in the Konkola Copper Mines (KCM).

Mumba is accompanied by Commissioner Minerva K. Tembo on her 10-day visit to India that includes stops in Delhi and Mumbai. They have been invited by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), the cultural arm of India’s external affairs ministry.

Mumba also met Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur to discuss the broader canvas of India-Zambia relations.

Mumba is upbeat about the prospects of democracy in Africa, but chooses to be a realist, saying the process is going to be an incremental one. “It’s a slow progress. We are getting there. More countries are having regular multi-party elections,” she said.

Mumba’s visit to India comes at a time when more African countries are moving in the direction of democracy. About two-thirds of African countries have held multi-party elections and more than 30 countries have accepted the African Peer Review Mechanism, that judges ruling dispensations by standards of transparency and accountability.